The present invention relates to a new and distinct Hydrangea plant, botanically known as Hydrangea quercifolia and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Brother Edward’.
The new Hydrangea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Cleveland, Ala. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new Hydrangea plants with interesting inflorescence forms.
The new Hydrangea plant originated from an open-pollination in 1988 of an unnamed seedling selection of Hydrangea quercifolia, not patented, as the female, or seed parent with an unknown selection of Hydrangea quercifolia as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Hydrangea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in Cleveland, Ala. in 1993.
Asexual reproduction of the new Hydrangea plant by softwood cuttings in a controlled environment in Cleveland, Ala. since July, 2004 has shown that the unique features of this new Hydrangea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.